New Life Games Tech Forums

Greetings.

As mentioned in the other thread, I'm now the proud owner of a PE+ bartop drop-in game, circa 1992.

First order of business.  I degaussed the screen (it needed it!) and it's looking pretty good.  Aside from some screen burn, it's looking okay.  The biggest problem I'm having right now is that the red, green, and blue are not aligning correctly.  In both of the test pattern screens you can see they're way off from being aligned correctly.  As such, the screen appears blurry or out of focus.

I've played with all of the knobs directly below the monitor and none of those control the adjustment of aligning the colors.  I presume there must be a way to do so -- what is it?  Are there fins on the back of the monitor tube to make the color alignment adjustment (I seem to remember those from a job a long time ago)?  What's the best way to access them in the drop-in cabinet (ie. can the monitor pull out while still being connected to see what I'm adjusting)?  How big of a risk am I at of being unplesently zapped?

Edited to add:
Because I'm impatient like that, I went ahead and tinkered.  I turned the power off, removed the coin comparator assembly and hopper, and the plastic cover around the base of the monitor.  I saw the "fins" just like I remembered.  I powered the thing back on and made adjustments as best as I could.  At least one of the fins is halfway broken, so it was interesting trying to get everything to line up.  I had it nearly perfect at one point, but since I just can't stand to leave well enough alone I made it worse, and then mostly better again.  It's a heck of a lot better now than it was, and I'm not going to worry about it anymore -- I eventually need a new monitor anyway because of the burn-in on it (or if we can ever find out more about those LCD conversions...), so I'm good for now.

I probably don't want to know how much voltage / potential zap there was when I was working on that.

Knagle,
I dont know a whole lot about monitors either but I play with them once in a while too.
The only thing I kow is to never touch the big red line going to the red cup on the back of the monitor! :96-
I have a question on your "fin" adjustment though...those "fins" are usually covered with some type of glue/silicone looking stuff.
Did you have o remove that stuff before playing with "fins"?
 Is that what controls the "lining" up of the tube gun primary colors?
Or did you turn/play with  the little adjustment knobs on the back of the tubes' board?

Reason I ask all this is because I'm trying to fix my mom's old tv... :72-

Well 25-35KV KV is all. :98- :98-

It looked like there had been some kind of glue or something, but it was old and cracked and not holding them in place anymore -- probably how my monitor got out of alignment in the first place.  I know if I move the machine that they'll rattle out of alignment again.  Perhaps I should look into putting a drop of silicone or something on them to hold them in place.

There are three sets of fins -- one for red, green, and blue.  I'm not 100% sure on how the adjustments work -- I just kept futzing with them until they lined up.

In this case I would advise some patience here.
Silicone can stink to high heven and cause major eye irritation.

I would either call a TV Repar shop and ask them what the right stuff to use is or to wait for one of our more technical members to give you a recommendation.

Thanks for the tip.  I'll just leave it alone for now.